A corporation is never just a formal legal or management structure. Each also
depends on knowledge, commitment and distinctive ways of working...
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A corporation is never just a formal legal or management structure. Each also
depends on knowledge, commitment and distinctive ways of working. Each flourishes
based on informal relationships among its employees and managers and with its customers
and other stakeholders. In other words, corporations are creatures of culture as
well as contract. Internally, strong culture is a resource – but sometimes
a blocker of change. Externally, culture is part of the water in which corporations
swim, but taking it for granted is risky. Corporations can contribute to the culture
in which they work, enhancing its creativity and its attractiveness to their managers
and employees. But they can also be blindsided by cultural change and challenged
by the complexity of working in many different cultural contexts at once. Zamyn
helps corporations understand culture and thus understand a crucial condition of
their effectiveness.

Art does not take place in a sphere apart from social, political and economic
realities… it is now more important than ever for us to demonstrate that art, politics
and business all shape our shared global culture and to make the case that art
has the power to change lives. Chris Dercon, former director – Tate Modern.

To thrive a corporation needs to provide the goods and services which a society
needs or wants. For Adam Smith’s archetypal baker embedded in a...
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To thrive a corporation needs to provide the goods and services which a society
needs or wants. For Adam Smith’s archetypal baker embedded in a small community,
this is relatively simple; for a global corporation interfacing with multiple cultures
which both evolve and often overlap, the challenge is complex. By bringing together
the corporate and cultural world Zamyn deepens the understanding of both, illuminating
the flow and counter flow of influences involved in the process of globalisation.
This can lead not just to greater mutual understanding, but to cooperation and
positive impacts.

Lanchester argues that everyone should know not only what a bond is but also how
to spot an inverted yield curve. Economics is at the heart of almost everything
yet most people can neither discuss it nor think about it, partly because the language
of money keeps them out.
As a novelist, Lanchester's first subject was food; only later did he become obsessed
with understanding money – the result being Whoops!, the best-written and most
entertaining account of the financial crisis. What also qualifies him for the job
of translator is that he likes the language. The son of a banker, he doesn’t find
it heartless: he finds it bracing. Financial Times

Psychoanalysis has proved itself to be a unique method of questioning and cultural
enquiry. By taking the unconscious and its effects seriously, and by recognising
and exploring human passions and forms of enjoyment, it sheds new light on social
and political stasis and change. Psychoanalytic perspectives can allow us to investigate
the hidden logic of meanings, behaviours and ideologies, facilitating a deeper
understanding of many of the processes and problems that characterise the world
today.
Darian Leader

If families, societies and our own psyches would prefer to control our speech;
if there is something about free speaking which makes politicians, mothers and
censors nervous, then psychoanalysis as a free space invented by Freud where anything,
however trivial, suspect or mad can be said is still essential. It is, after all,
where silence is compelled that evil is done. The encouragement of free speaking
as a form of dissent and of creativity is crucial in psychoanalysis, just as it
is in literature and in life itself, where it is a vital component of human liberty
and individuality.
Hanif Kureishi

Ben Okri: Literature works with the core of consciousness. It engages us at the imaginative level; it works with...
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Literature works with the core of consciousness. It engages us at the imaginative
level; it works with all that makes us human. Literature by its very nature questions
the nature of reality. As reality is always the perception of reality, the power
of literature to be a radical alternative is very significant. It implies that
the world as we see it is not the only way it can be. In literature is revolution,
modification, adaption, preservation, re-dreaming. Literature is the constant foe
of tyranny, the constant hope for our best futures. It represents our magical capacity
for transformation.
Ben Okri

There is no doubt that growth has come at an enormous cost to our natural resources,
which are rapidly being depleted. WWF estimate that parts of the world are already
living off the equivalent of 1.5 planets. We are pushing at the limits of our ‘planetary
boundaries’. As a result, the prospect of what scientists’ term an ‘abrupt and
irreversible environmental change’ is now very real. We already see extreme weather
patterns fast becoming the norm. According to the Environment Agency, the UK spent
a fifth of last year in flood, and even longer in drought. The cost to individual
companies can run into hundreds of millions a year. These challenges to the sustainability
of our planet come before another two billion people enter the population – and
many more aspire to higher standards of living. And we face these issues at a
time when people’s trust in governments and other institutions to address them
is at an all-time low. According to the latest global survey, only 48% have trust
in their governments. Many in particular doubt the ability of political leaders
to internalise international challenges, like climate change, and to show the necessary
leadership. As a result, people are no longer asking, ‘who’s in charge?' Aided
by the rapid escalation in social media, increasingly empowered citizens are taking
matters into their own hands. Digital technology is allowing them to create large
communities of interest, share information fast and drive to action. We already
see whole regimes being brought down. Business has an opportunity to step up and
fill the leadership void, but it will require moving from an old licence to operate
approach to one based on a ‘licence to lead’. Companies that understand this and
are willing to become part of the solution to today’s social and sustainability
challenges will have a bright future. Those that don't will become dinosaurs –
outdated, outmoded and out-of-business. That is the challenge.
Paul Polman, CEO
- Unilever, for Zamyn